Faith should be the lifestyle of the believer, not a weapon you look for when you are confronted with a mountain or reserved for the time of trouble, or as a last alternative out of necessity. Faith is what makes us Christians (Eph 2:8-9, Gal 6:10). The word is called the word of faith because for you to live by it, you must exercise faith.

The word of God is called the word of faith because it inspires faith (Rom 10:17) and also because you cannot live by it if you do not have faith in it. Bible says we should walk in Christ the way we received Him (Col 2:6-7). We received Him by faith (Eph 2:8-9); we are to walk in Him the same way - by faith. The faith walk is the normal Christian walk. If we are not walking by faith, we are not walking in our Christianity. If we do not follow that pattern, we will find Christianity boring, burdensome.

The Bible describes the lifestyle of the Christian as: A WALK, A FIGHT, and A RACE.

·         OUR LIFESTYLE AS A WALK

Certain portions of scriptures describe our lifestyle as a WALK. This walk must be conducted by faith (2 Cor 5:7,Gal 5:16). It is knowledge of God’s word that inspires faith to enable this walk (Rom 10:17).Ignorance inspires unbelief (Rom 10:1-2). Often times we wrongly associate great faith with zeal, but without an accurate knowledge of God’s word you cannot walk by faith. e.g the Jews (Rom 10:1-4). The key to walking by faith is having an understanding of God’s word.

When you fall sick and you profess to believe God, what exactly is the basis of your faith? Is it God’s word or some flimsy and faulty basis which cannot be proven? True faith must be based on reality or truth of God’s word. If the basis is false, there cannot be true faith. The reason why a man can be saved is because salvation is based on the reality that Christ actually rose from the dead. If He did not rise from the dead, then there is no true faith (Rom 10:8-9, 1 Cor 15:1-20). When it is not based on God’s word, it is presumption, foolishness or unbelief. Faith must therefore be based on the truth of the word of God. The word of God, is the word of truth, and it is also the word of faith (Rom 10:17). If you must walk by faith, you must seek for knowledge – knowledge of God’s word.

In our walk, we should seek to live by faith on a daily basis (2 Cor 5:7). When you make decisions, are they based on sight or God’s word? When God has spoken to you concerning something, it may not make sense from a human perspective, but faith means agreeing with God and acting on God’s word regardless. That was what Abraham did (Heb 11:8-10).

We are admonished to walk in the Spirit in Gal 5:16.It takes faith to do this, and to express the fruit of the Spirit listed in Gal 5:22. It takes faith to walk in love, joy, peace, self-control, meekness, etc. Without faith, it would be difficult to forgive and show love to someone who has wronged us. We may find it difficult to forgive because we are trying to do it by sight, by our feelings. But when we do it by faith, we can forgive and really let go. External circumstances would not ordinarily make one rejoice, it takes faith. That was why Abraham could rejoice while waiting for the fulfilment of God’s promise, in spite of the deadness of his body and of Sarah’s womb (Rom 4:17-21). Job lost all he had in a split second and yet he was able to bless God. If you depend on feelings to rejoice, you can never truly rejoice, for it takes faith to rejoice amidst contrary circumstances.

·         OUR LIFESTYLE AS A FIGHT

The Christian life is described as warfare or a fight of faith. Somehow, Bible reveals that we are constantly involved in warfare (1 Timothy 6:10, 2 Cor 10:3-6, 1 Tim 1:18, 2 Tim 2:5). We must have the attitude of a soldier/fighter [2Tm2:4-5). A soldier is trained to have an awareness of his surroundings and to instinctively react. Many times we are engaged in a battle. There is an enemy somewhere fighting against us, and we need to be alert and engage properly.

Ephesians 6:12 reveals that we wrestle not against flesh and blood (human beings) but many times we wrongly fight against that which is seen - a neighbour, a brother, or a colleague, or a supposed with somewhere - when in truth we have a common enemy – the Devil - who has turned us against one another. We are engaged in a war with him, not at vigils, or some seasons, but on a daily basis – and we need faith to engage in the battle. Paul knew HOW to fight (1 Cor. 9:24-27), and WHO to fight (Eph 6:12).

There is a battle, and that battle is against principalities and powers. Usually the tendency is to focus on witches and wizards, and all sorts of techniques are used to do this – binding and casting etc.  Even if someone is a witch, the scriptural thing, knowing that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, and that the person is being controlled or possessed by a spirit, is to cast the spirit out of the person, like Paul did (Acts 16:16-18), and not to fight a physical witch. We should realize that even in respect to principalities and powers, they rank below us. By virtue of being a member of the Body of Christ and principalities being under His feet, the believer has been placed above them (Eph 1:21-22). Col 3:3 also makes us realize that the life of the believer is hid in Christ in God. A life hid in Christ is under exclusive protection and the devil cannot touch it. We attribute everything that happens to us to the Devil, despite scriptures revealing that God has given us power over him, his works, and that nothing can hurt us(Luke 10:17-19).

This is the truth – we operate at a higher level of superiority (1 Cor 8:5-6, John 3:31, Mk 16:17-18). There is no biblical authority to bind a devil or a person spiritually. Mt 16:19 & Mt 18:18,  do not speak about authority to bind devils; while the Bible reveals that the Devil will only be bound by an angel, ONCE in bible for a period of a thousand years (Rev 20:1-2), before eventually being cast into the Lake of fire. Casting out demons and evil spirits are however scriptural (Mt 16:19).

There is indeed a struggle with the devil, and it is not what we conventionally think (e.g witches and wizards) it is something much more sophisticated and subtle. The warfare the believer engages in daily specifically relates to the WILES of the Devil (Eph 6:1). Wiles are stratagems or tricks intended to deceive or ensnare - they are the Devil’s greatest weapon, and that is what we must stand against in evil day (Eph 6:13), the evil day being everyday (Eph 5:16). Bible instructs us to arm ourselves (Eph 6:11-17) to be able to stand against this wiles in the evil day (Eph 6:13]. One of the greatest mistakes we can make is to magnify the Devil beyond how scriptures reveal him, and as a result we are defeated. He knows the superiority of the status of the believer in Christ, and that he cannot match or stand it, and he instead resorts to wiles/deceit/lies. The lies/deceit (2 Cor. 11:3) is what is referred to as the fiery darts of the wicked [Eph 6:17], which we are to extinguish with faith/believing God’s word. Since the wiles are daily, the shield of faith must be utilized as a lifestyle. Therefore, the greatest disservice we can do to ourselves is not to believe God’s word.

A similar idea to Eph 6:11-17 is conveyed in 2 Cor. 10:3-6. The war described there is a battle waged, won or lost in the mind. It is not some battle against witches and wizards, but one where the believer chooses to believe God’s word or something else. It is a war of choices between walking by faith in God’s word or sight, between God’s word and that of men (human reasoning, opinion, sentiments). That is why demons, spirits are not mentioned in that portion of scriptures but “strongholds” (figuratively means “arguments”), “imaginations” (reasoning, thought), which along with every high thing exalts itself against the KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. It is an ongoing war between the truth of God’s word, and the imaginations, arguments, knowledge of men, and a world system ruled by the Devil. This war takes place daily, plays out in our circumstances, experiences, temptations, and faith in God’s word. An example would be when someone does something to you and you feel anger, and for a good reason because what the person did was provocative. Thoughts of repaying evil for evil, bitterness, malice, etc would arise in your minds, and you feel like releasing it in form of retaliation. You are able to win the war in your mind and forgive or walk in love when God’s word determines your actions (Eph 4:26-27, 31-32,1 Pet 2:19-22,Rom 12:17-21), and refrains you from responding wrongly.

Wielding our Christianity is our non-carnal weapons for waging this war. We are to fight the good fight of faith, lay hold of eternal life [1 Tim 6:12], on the truth, on our Christianity is our weapon in this war. There is therefore no substitute for a personal understanding of God’ word.

·         OUR LIFE AS A RACE -Heb 12: 1-2

There’s a race we must finish [2 Tim 4:5-6,1 Cor. 9:24-27, Heb. 12:2], a course to run [Acts 20:24], a purpose we must accomplish and we cannot do these successfully if we are running by sight. Let us run with faith. Faith considers the word of God. It considers the invisible. It recognizes that there are things to consider and things not to consider. We are to consider Jesus/God (Heb. 3:1, Heb. 12:2-3, Heb. 11:16) inspite of all other things you could have considered. You must deliberately consider not certain things, else they serve as deterrent to your walk of faith (Rom 4:17-21). This does not mean to deny all things that can be seen and are true in their own realities, but it means to consider the higher reality of the word of God (Mk 11:23-24).The word of God should be the judge and the final issue. When you are doubtful of the word of God you cannot enjoy the blessings of redemption. Abraham waited for 25 years till age 100 when His word was fulfilled. Consider Him! How? Consider Him through His word. Let His word settle the issue.

You cannot walk as a Christian if you do not walk by faith. You cannot fight the good fight of faith without faith, and you cannot run your race without faith.